Visual Concepts, the development team behind the sleeper hit NFL2K has come back with a second offering in its Sega Sports series with NBA2K. Can they do the same for hoops as they have done for the grid iron? You bet they have with solid gameplay and the most realistic player models to date to ever grace a console system.

Graphics

NBA2K is the best-looking basketball game on the market. From fully animated crowds to brilliant facial reactions, Visual Concepts have covered every small detail. More than 400 individually modeled players are included with accurate bone structures, head-shapes, hairstyles and facial features. More than 1600 motion-captured moves are present making NBA2K have four times more than any other sports game to date.

Yes, all of the tattoos are present. Even the coaches have been painfully rendered to resemble their real-life counterparts. To witness even more graphical brilliance, use the replay mode to zoom in on the players and you will find subtle details such as facial blemishes or the holes in the mesh uniforms. To top it all off the game runs in high resolution at a constant 60 frames per second refresh rate.

Audio

Once again Visual Concepts opted to go with professional voice actors instead of using popular hoops commentators. The result is quite similar to NFL2K and that is a very good thing. The play-by-play rolls along at a steady pace and compliments the on-screen action quite nicely. The stadium announcer works well as does the stadium music which consists of hiphop and techno based tunes. While the announcers can be funny at times, they do tend to get a bit repetitive. The coaches from time to time are heard shouting words of frustration and encouragement. The players only provide a small amount of small talk and the game could have benefited from more of it. The sound effects are standard hoops fair but are quite accurately done.